Get Your Head in the Game: CHUCKY KLAPOW

High School Musical has some of the most memorable dance numbers in DCOM history and choreographer Chucky Klapow is behind some of those moments!

Chucky joins Bart Johnson to discuss what it was like working on the franchise and looks back on the incredible years on set. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Wildcats, this is Bart Johnson and you're listening to
get your Head in the game.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Everyone, welcome back to get your head in the game.
Today we have a very special guest. He works side
by side with the legendary Kenny Ortega and Bonnie's Story
to bring you some of your favorite high school musical
dance moments to life. His career has been nothing short
of incredible and I cannot wait to dive into his journey.
Please welcome my friend, Chucky claybou Hey, Chuckie, oh Man.

(00:36):
Always good to see you, man.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
How you doing.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm feeling good, man. How are you your You know, Chuckie,
if you didn't work so dang much, we'd hang out
all the time, you know. I know with in La
and you are always out of town or on tour
or shooting something or rehearsing something. It's like, dude, you
work a lot, right like you.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Are not stopping. Yeah, I've been pretty busy. It's been great.
How have you been. I've been good.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
I've been good. I'm down here in Mexico City right now,
down here for I was just there.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I was just in Mexico City working with a pop group.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh no, that would be so fun man to hang
out down here, Chucky. But first of all, just let
me say thank you, brother, thank you for doing this,
thank you for giving your time to the fans that
we love so much. We love them so much. We do, Yes,
we do, and happy twenty year anniversary. I decided, do
we need to do this at least every every year?
There's a five or a zero on the end, you know,

(01:27):
like recap man check in.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's so cool that people still care. It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
It's amazing that this has lived on for this long
that people actually still care, and you know, it's amazing,
it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, it means so much to them. Can I tell
you what someone said to me on the sidewalk yesterday?
Out of blue, someone came up and he said, local
person here in Mexico City. They said, you're coach Bolton. Yeah,
said you painted my youth so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
That's awesome. I mean, I still call you coach.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Every I'll take it. I'll take it. It feels actually
oddly comfortable. So I don't know if it's because I've
been coaching soccer for my kids teams for so long.
I'm not sure, but uh, I like, I like being
the coach man, everything about it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Hey you're a natural. What can I say?

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Gosh, thanks Chuckie. So uh, man, let's start. Let's start
at the beginning.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Man, Let's go back in time. Let's go back in time.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
So obviously the whole objective of this podcast is just
a big, huge thank you to all the Wildcats for
twenty years of just being so amazing and so awesome
to us, giving us so many opportunities. This all the love, man,
always constant love, but also aside, just to say thank
you to them. But I think, like, what do they
want to hear? You know, what do they want to

(02:43):
hear about it? And I think it's really interesting everybody
I've talked to I'm learning stuff. Like I thought I
knew everything, but then I start talking about where were
you before the movie? And Chuck, you started young man,
I can't believe you started. Like it's such a high level,
it's so impressive. But then it makes sense, you know,
when like some one that's your how old were you
on number one?

Speaker 3 (03:03):
I think I was about twenty four years old when
we were shooting the first movie.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
I mean, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's why Kenny was like, you look young enough, jump in,
you could be on the basketball team. So I was
number forty four on the basketball team. I was lucky
enough to be young enough to dance and choreograph. It
was the best, best time ever and such a learning
experience for me. Yes, like you said, I already had
been established as a choreographer. I was working with a
pop group from Sweden called the Eighteens, and I was

(03:29):
doing all kinds of stuff with them for many years,
and Kenny really introduced me to the art of choreography.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
He taught me on a choreograph for the camera.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Working with Bonnie and Kenny opened up my mind in
so many ways as an artist. At first, I was like,
really good at choreographing steps and making a movement. I
didn't know that there was a way to choreograph and
tell a story at the same time, that movement for
movement's sake wasn't enough. Movement that drove the story along

(03:59):
was going to be something that was going to make
a statement and people at home were going to, you know,
embrace and understand more.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I learned that from Kenny and Bonnie that it was
about telling a story.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was about you know, showing the audience what the
lyrics are saying, that it's a movie musical, that the
steps have to be there for a reason. We're not
just going to dance to dance. Kenny and Bonnie taught
me so much. I am forever grateful.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, we've I've talked to both Kenny and Bonnie. They
rave about you. Everybody, every the cash, the crew, Kenny, everybody,
we all love Chuck. You like you're the best. Do
you always know last week? Always such amazing energy. Literally
never seen you a low energy, So like same with you.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Energy. It is, it is what it is like.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
We just like to bring the fun and keep everybody happy.
That's what it's all about. I've always said that I'm
a player's coach, that I want the team to have
a great time. I think that's why I stayed friends
with so many of them. Like Lucas is a buddy.
It was his birthday, so I texted him to say
happy birthday. I went to Disneyland with him a couple
of weeks ago. We're still such good friends after all
these years. Vanessa Corbin like, it's just so cool that

(05:04):
you do a gig like this and you say you're
going to stay in touch. And you know, normally, you
know how it is, you do a gig and you
say you're going to stay in touch and then you
don't really talk to people again after after time has passed.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
This is This was different. High school musical was different.
We're a family.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
We stayed in touch, and to this day, some of
the best friends in my life are because of this project.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
And it's kind of amazing. Really.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, yeah, we did not see this coming.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah right, I mean we've been to weddings. We've been
to weddings together.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, it's true. And you're right, Like every time you
do a movie or a TV show, when it's over,
you bond with people and you spend this like amazing
time together, like, oh man, we'll be friends. We'll we're
together again, and it's like nine nine percent of the
time you never see you mean to, but you never do.
But this, yeah, man, this one, this one's different.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
This is just special.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah. And then the ride from all three, going from
this tiny little Disney Chanel movie to this big Walt
Easy Picture show that the entire world fell in love with, not.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
To mention the concert tours.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
You know, we went on a Us tour that lasted
a couple months in between High School Musical one and two,
And then after we shot High School Musical two, we
went to South America and we did like the South
American and Mexican leg of the World Tour, being on
the road together on tour buses, on planes and spending
that time together in between movies. And then do we
like High School Musical, the Ice Tour and the theater

(06:31):
show on Broadway, like unbelievable amounts of experience that so
many of us got to have.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
With one another. It really I think it made everybody.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
That much stronger as dancer, the singers, as artists.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
It was the reason why.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
We were able to raise the bar from the first
movie to the second, and then from the second to
the third.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
They had so much practice in between.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Monique did Dancing with the Stars, Corbyn did another movie,
and Zach was doing Hairspray. Everyone was training and training
in between movies that by the third we were able
to go from like easy choreography in the first movie
to like solid dancing in the third.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, yeah. You know, something we've been talking about on
the podcast that keeps coming up is that the brilliance,
but top behind the choreography. I always feel like, like
you can see a movie that has really great music,
You're like, wow, that's great music, but when you leave,
you're not singing it, you know. But like you see
a kid and you leave, you you're singing it. You
know those songs high school musical, you leave and you're
doing the dances. Everybody's like, it's it's like catching up

(07:34):
resonates enough that everybody now everybody's been they've had memorized
for twenty eight years.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's crazy, it's so cool.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
I've taught a couple of masterclasses in recent days, and
over the years, I can count on like my two
hands just how many times I've actually taught high school
musical choreography in a class.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
And it's weird.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Because twenty years later, I've just started to like go
into a studio and teach a group of you know,
twenty year old's choreography from the film and they already
know it, and I'm like, wait, you weren't even born yet.
Like some of them are eighteen nineteen and they weren't
even born yet. But they say that they grew up
with it. They say that it was their childhood, even

(08:12):
though they weren't even born when the first one came out.
It's kind of incredible. And then I have some people
that are a little older who are already showing their
kids the film, and that's just wow, that's just incredible
that another generation is experiencing it.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
No I hear the parents say that my child this
made my childhood so magical. I want my kids to
have this. I want them to be living in this movie.
So they got their singing the songs at home. It
lives on. Man, we're getting way way ahead of ourselves.
But like that's always Jog is so excited talking to
you about this stuff. Chuck you, but could you tell
me like beginning, like when did you first realize you

(08:49):
were a dancer and that this is something you had
to do.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
When I was ten years old, I was watching the
American Music Awards and I saw Paul Abduel. She did
the opening number. It was all guys backing her up,
and she did this tap section in the middle of it,
and I was like.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Whoa, this is so cool.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
I always loved music since I was a little kid,
and the awards shows was an extension of that music
that I loved, so I got to see the music
come to life on an awards show. I was obsessed
with watching every single awards show, and Paula's performance on
the American Music Awards nineteen ninety is why I took
my first dance class.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
I said, I want to do that. I want to
be up there. It was all guys. I was like,
this is so cool.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
I want to dance with Paul Abduel, and I took
my first class. I got an agent because the other
moms in the studio were like, he's really good, you
should get him an agent. My mom didn't know what
she didn't know what to do, and all the other
parents kind of just guided us along. My first audition
was for a pediatric AIDS benefit with Paul Abduel, and
I booked the gig at twelve years old.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Dance at the Paula my idol.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
I just look up to and I and to this day,
you know, flash forward, all these years later, we've choreographed together,
We've won awards together. We just honored her with a
World Choreography the Award Legacy Award, Lifetime Achievement Award the
other day, and I still can't believe that we're friends.
I still can't believe by nowhere because I'm going to be.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
A fan first always right right, such an icon. I
get the fans.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
I get the energy that high school musical fans bring
because as a as a fan myself of just stuff.
I love music, I love artists, I love sports. I
get what it's like to be a fan. So I
get the energy when people come up to us and
thank us and say they love the movie.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
I totally relate.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Same say, man, yeah, yeah, I'm being such like a
movie lover. Like I'm you know, I like just grew
up watching movies and musicals and just like oh man,
when I saw when I saw a moan to go
back to what happened next for you, Chucky? But when
when I when I met, I grew up watching you know,
Singing in the Rain and all that kind of stuff
and uh and and then when when my mom was
started to work getting as her hairstylist as his hairstyles,

(10:53):
I would go and watch the movies. Well we'll go
watch them shoot, you know, like they did a series
called Hell High Together, which was like a musical high
school show which you go and then new Zy's like
on the set of news.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
I went to the movies to see New Zies when
I was really a little kid. I'll never forget. It
was only in the theaters for a couple of weeks
because a man, it bombed at the box office.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
But then you blink your eyes twenty years later and
it has a legacy. It's on. It's incredible.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
You never know what you're gonna get, and if something
just doesn't work out at the beginning, you never know
what it's gonna end up doing later, So it's pretty incredible.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, well, I liked him. Kenny was always uh, you know,
you know, he's always champion musicals, like I'm gonna bring
the musicals back, and it's like, okay, he made new
Ze's this is incredible. The world just wasn't ready, I guess.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
We will be taping live episode of Get Your Head
in the Game at Disney California Adventure Park on December fourth,
twenty twenty five. If you live in the Southern California area,
or if you can be in the Southern California area
on December fourth, we have an opportunity for you to
join us between now and November twenty fourth, twenty twenty five.
You can enter for your chance to win tickets to

(12:01):
attend the Coast one O three point five Private Holiday
Party at Disney California Adventure Park on December fourth, twenty
twenty five, including an overnight's day at the Disneyland Resort
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one park per day tickets to Disneyland Park or Disney
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(12:22):
me while we're taping an episode of Get Your Head
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Head in the Game Now to enter for your chance
to win. So, what happened after you dance for Paula?
And that must have been like, okay, you feel elevated.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
You're like, okay, that was exciting.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
As a kid, you know, every dancer's dream is to
dance with your idol and someone you grew up looking
up to, and that was incredible. But I was super
young and I started assisting this choreographer, Marguerite Derek's when
I was a teenage fifteen sixteen, seventeen years old. I
was assisting Marguerite on movies like Austin Powers and even Showgirls.

(13:07):
I was under eighteen and I was helping with that
film with choreography.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
It was amazing. She taught me a lot.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
She did like Third Rock from the Sun, and I
helped her with an episode of that. I learned so
much about assisting for her that she got me ready
for what was to come. It was almost like a
natural progression to go from Marguerite to Kenny. I think
Marguerite choreographed an episode of Fame in La that I
danced in that.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Kenny was directing.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
And I didn't know really at the time that Kenny
Ortega was a director, but I was dancing on that
gig Kenny was a director, and I only found out
about it later when we were doing high School Musical
that he was actually directing an episode I danced on.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
But Yeah, as soon as I.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Got the call from my agent that Kenny was looking
for someone young that knew how to do stuff with
a basketball for this Disney Channel film that he was
about to do.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
On the phone with my agent, I was like, Oh
my gosh, Kenny or Tega.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
In my head, I'm thinking Newsy's Dirty Dancing Michael Jackson,
Like I couldn't stop thinking about Michael Jackson because I
remember watching the HBO pay per view special of The
Dangerous Tour and seeing the credits and seeing Michael. You know,
this show created by directed by Kenny or Tega.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
So I didn't know who.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
I'd never worked with him, but I was just like,
oh my gosh, I know who Kenny is, and I'm like,
oh wow, this would be so cool to work with him.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
So this was shortly, like it was really quick.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
I was a teenager working with Marguerite, started choreographing, worked
with the eighteens in Sweden, and the next thing, you know,
I'm like twenty four and getting a phone call from
my agent saying, Kenny's looking for somebody to work with.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Okay, okay, So that's a cool phone call. And then
what's like, what literally happens after that phone call?

Speaker 2 (14:52):
She says, show up at a studio tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Kenny's working with actors auditioning in the final it's a
final cut for the actors. Already, yeah, they already went
through the acting portion, they already went through the singing portion,
and now it was time to dance and they were
about to cast like the last the main six actors
for this film. So I met him at a studio
the next day. I'm driving over to the studio. I
get a phone call in my car while I'm driving

(15:17):
to the studio. Never met Kenny before in my life.
It's Kenny calling me to say, Hey, Chucky, I'm on
the way to the studio.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Do you want anything. I'm going to get some sandwiches.
Do you want me to get some food. I'm like, whoa,
this is awesome.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
I don't even know you and you're like so much
fun already, and I was like, no, I'm good, I'll
see you at the studio. He told me to bring
some music and bring a basketball, and that was really
all I knew I needed to do. Got there, put
on a song and he's like, he goes, what kind
of song? Can we do some basketball movement too for

(15:49):
these actors that are going to come in, just to
make sure they can dribble the ball on the beat,
And I put on will Smith. Will Smith song Switch
was big at the time, and it was a perfect
rhythm to bounce to basketball too, and it went. So
we did this choreography for the audition.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
The rhythm was really good.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
And then Kenny's like, let's call the music guys. Let's
tell them to make this basketball song sound like that
song that will that you play. It's such a good
rhythm for basketball.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
I never knew this.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, I know, it's a little like a little secret.
I never really talked about it, but it's pretty cool.
That was the inspiration for you.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
I mean, I can I can hear it. It makes total sense.
Were you nervous, by the way when you got there
and he's talking to you like, okay, let's just like
get on. You've been You've been on your feet for
so many years.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
At this point, I wasn't nervous.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
I was just excited to meet Kenny because especially after
the phone call in the car, he was so nice.
Just on my way to the session. We got to
the studio and we worked for about an hour before
the actors came in, and we were making up some
movement just so we could teach the actors and the
guys that came in that day. It was like, you
know Corbyn and Zach. Corbyn wasn't there that day, but Zach,
you know, Lucas, Vanessa, everybody, all the actors were there

(16:59):
for their final acting call, just to see if they
could move, and it was kind of amazing, like thinking
back that so much was going to happen after that session.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Oh my gosh, lives are being changed right in that
little session.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
I remember Lucas outside on a break. We went outside
to like hang out, and Lucas was like, I like
what you do? I'm like, oh, you know, that's that's
not really what I do, because we Kenny and I
made up some like really simple cheesy choreography for some actors.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
That it wasn't like really great dancing. It was.

Speaker 3 (17:32):
I was a little bit embarrassed actually, because it was
just trying to get actors to move, so we couldn't
do anything too difficult. And I remember being like, oh, well,
you know, my choreogra is a little better than that,
and then he goes, this isn't what I do either.
He's such a he's such like a deep actor and
a talented artist that he felt like the Disney stuff
was not what he did either, and we were just like,

(17:55):
I remember talking to him. He didn't even get the
part yet and I didn't.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Even know who he was. And we laughed about to
this day.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
That like on day one we connected outside and we're
still best friends of this day.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Wow, what a great moment. That's so cool. That's all
the session. Then how long did that session go?

Speaker 3 (18:11):
It was like about an hour or two hours with
the guys and the girls, and I sat in the
room and watched them do some of the acting. They
did a little bit of acting together. They would match
people up, like Lucas was with another girl or Ashley
was with another guy, and they were trying to match
people up to see who had chemistry together to be
Ryan and Sharpey, or to be Troy and Gabriella, And

(18:32):
just watching the process and seeing the casting process, seeing
the match different people up. As soon as Lucas and
Ashley were matched together, you knew it made sense, you
knew that was Ryan and Sharpey.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
It was incredible.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
And then when it was time to cast Troy, there
was a little confusion. Everyone was standing around the table
with all these headshots and pictures, all the actors already left,
and Kenny was pointing at Zach's picture saying that's our guy.
That's our guy, and the other people in the room
we're like, I don't know he's not really the best singer,

(19:03):
and Kenny's like, we can teach him how to sing.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
And then someone else's like, I don't know about his teeth,
and Kenny's like, we can fix his teeth.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
And you know, everyone had like a little issue with Zach,
and Kenny was the only one putting his foot down saying,
Zach Geffron is a star.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
He's our guy.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
And at one point he goes, are you directing the
movie or do you want me to direct the movie?
Because I can direct him, he's a star. I was like,
this is day one. I'd never met this.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Guy before, and I was like, whoa.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Kenny Ortega is like on fire. He knows what he's
looking at. He has a vision. And that was on
day one, and moving forward, like I started to realize
his gift is casting. His gift is discovering stars and
just knowing who who is, who has something special to
bring to the table, whether they're whether or not, you know,

(19:53):
if they're not the best actor, the best singer, or
the best dancer in the world. He sees magic, he
discovers the magic, and he brings is it to life.
He's amazing, He's an incredible coach. He's a visionary, he's
a master. That was like evident from day one.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you're totally right. And I
think we've all seen Kenny could be so sweet and
so kind and like he's so great to work with,
but when he needs to like put his foot down,
Yeah you didn't. I mean he's the leader, he's in charge.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
He is because he knows, he knows, He's proven it.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Time and time again. I mean on Newsy with Christian Bale, right, yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
And like just all these all these people he's discovered
along the way over the years.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
He knows what he's doing.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah. Yeah, that that that Newsy's casting, I mean, all
the newsies, all the paper Wise, they're all like a
lot of those guys became stars. I mean they're so good.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
And then of course hocus Pocus there, look at those three.
The casting on those three is like that's genius. Man.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Another movie that was a bomb at the box office,
It didn't do well at the beginning, that's lived on
to become a legendary Halloween movie.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Totally like time, maybe the best Halloween movie to some
people in the world.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, there's a reason why Kenny or take as a
Disney legend. And we're all lucky enough to say that
we've learned from him and worked with him. And I
think he's the reason why High School Musical, the legacy
and what it was became what it was because of
all of his magic. I mean, he sprinkled in lines
into the script. You know, he was creative on the set,
like you know you saw him. He's such a spontaneous

(21:29):
on the spot creator. He has this imagination and he
always said when you work with me, all I want
you to bring his imagination. Just bring an imagination, have
an open mind, and be ready to dive in and create.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
And he's just he's so inspiring.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Wow. I know, like I said, you know, some people
obviously they want to address this and say, look, we
got the script, it is what it is. Like what
I want to focus on is getting is done, get
on time, get us to lunch by time, you know whatever.
And it's like to hear that as the directive, like
be creative, make magical.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
He said.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
He just said, I just want you to have an image,
just bring on imagination. I'll never forget that. And then
he told me imagination, he said, imagination creates reality. He
told everybody that all the time, dream big, imagination creates reality.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
I mean that he said that at the very beginning.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
This is twenty years ago, and now he's a Disney
legend with all the imagineers.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
You know. It's yeah, it's magic.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah. I wonder sometimes because I see, you know, other movies, like,
you know, people trying to recreate high school musical or
find that thing to make more for for another audience,
and I always feel like it's missing that like hyper reality,
you know, like the larger than life stuff. It's like
super grounded with all the music and the themes and
and what they really want you to hear from them.

(22:43):
But it's it's so big and so wonderful and so colorful.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
I don't know if it like disarms people, you know,
Like I.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Think what's really interesting about it is that it's about people.
There's so many Disney movies that are about princesses and
about these characters and high school music. Cool is about
people in high school living different lives and having different experiences.
That was relatable and to this day is still relatable
about you know, if you play sports and you want

(23:12):
to sing and dance.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
That's fine. You can do whatever you want to do.
You can do both if you want to do it.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
I mean, this is kind of a universal message about
things that people go through in everyday life, no matter
what era we're living in. So I think there's something
really important about that that is very different from all
your typical Disney films that deal with something a little
bit more out there and magical, more fantasy based.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
This is about people.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is interesting that the people really
resonate the different characters. I'm true. You've seen the thing
on social media where it's like which character you take
the test, and it's like, as big as these characters are,
they're so grouded and so real, Like everybody's like, oh yeah,
I'm definitely you know, Oh I'm definitely Chucky, I'm definitely
Sharpe or you know whatever. But yeah, it is so funny.

(24:08):
You know, Checkie, what people ask me when I thought
this was going to be a hit, I always first
I say, nobody knew. Don't believe anybody that says they knew,
like this was like such a shock, was such a price.
Nobody knew.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
The only one that knew was Kenny and I remember
when we were shooting We're all in this together.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Right before we shot the very.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
End of that number with a big, big group dance
where it starts with Troy.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
And Gabriella builds and builds and builds. Right before we
shot it.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
On the set, Kenny's on the bullhorn saying, this is
going to change your life. You don't know it now,
but this is gonna make history, and this is going
to take over the world. You don't even realize what
you're part of right now. You have to understand he's
telling us. He gave us this big speech on set,
so Kenny definitely saw it. I don't think any of
us understood that Kenny knew. Kenny knew.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
I mean it sounds like a nice, you know, hype
talk from the coach. Okay, cool, yeah, all right, yes,
yes he did. That song was amazing.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
He knew in the studio when we were doing choreography
to get you ahead in the game with the basketball.
He even said to me, Chucky, this is gonna win
an Emmy Award. This is this choreography is Emmy worthy.
He was telling me these things as we were creating them,
and I'm telling you he would also back it up
with imagination creates reality. He's telling us a dream big
and make things happen. He was manifesting everything.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The few times I went to dinner
with Kenny during the shooting in the movie, he talked
business the whole time, like talking about a character, talk
about these scenes sometimes, does he ever? This guy never
turns off. I mean he when he's making a movie.
He is so one thousand percent.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Oh yeah, going through the script over and over every
single night, just trying to figure out.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
How to make it better and what he could add
to it, what he could bring to it. Oh my gosh,
I got to see it firsthand. It's incredible.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
We were really lucky, really lucky.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
I was gonna say what when people ask me, like,
when did you so? I say no, I never knew
it was going to be this big. But every once
in a while, ago this ship seems like and you're
you're part of the story. I always tell when we
were shooting. I don't know if you remember this, I'm
sure you do. When we were shooting, we're all in
the no stick to the status quo. So we're in
the cafeteria and a monitor like video village is like
in the center of the room facing the steps that

(26:15):
come down, and it was so massive, man, and it's
before Sharpay and Ryan come out, and it's just and
then that's when she yells and comes down on the
whole thing. Everybody quiet, Yes, Do you remember like it was?
It was going nuts, Like the whole room was going
nuts before she yells. Quiet. And I remember I was
in video village. I had my kids with me because
I was like, I'm trying to be cool dad, you know,

(26:35):
like loo Ki, It's like how cool I am. They're like,
oh whatever, but I'm like I'm geeking out. I'm like
this is awesome. And you were on one side of
the monitor and Bonnie was on the other side of
the monitor, and you guys are we're filming, Like it
wasn't rehearsal, we're filming, and Ken He's like okay, and
it was like you I was like, oh dude, it's
like an artist of a paintbrush. Mean, it's like this
and this is changing this half this person do this
flip over here, spin over here. I don't even know.

(26:56):
I don't know the words he was saying, but he
was talking a million miles an hour and you might
are like and then you'll cut and you guys just
ran up there five minutes later where reset and it's
a totally different scene that there's normal for you. But
that blew my mind. I couldn't believe what I was watching.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
I was always adjusting, always ready on the spot, ready
for anything.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
I mean I remember, I know exactly what you're talking
about because some of it I was dancing in the shots.
And then there are other times where if they weren't
focused on our table, I could jump out and look
at the monitor and help Bonnie running around giving all
the cues. Because Kenny would look at the monitor and
see someone that wasn't singing and say, that person's not singing,
they need to be singing. He'd look at every single
person in the shot. There's one hundred people, and he

(27:39):
would see who's involved and who's not, who's who's really real,
and who needs to be swapped out. Unbelievable vision, and
Bonnie and I would have to relay that message constantly
in between takes, for sure.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, yeah, oh I miss those days. Man. You know,
you shoot a movie and like every day is kind
of the same. You know, except for maybe like a
big stunt you know, if there's a big stunt day
and it's like you did shoot a movie for one
hundred days or whatever fifty days and like it's normal,
you know, same, same, same, same. Oh, today's like the
big event. And like I always felt like that, by
this is like yeah, yeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
It's like you shoot, you know, you're shooting establishing shot
you and then you go inside you get coverage and
singles and doubles and bubba, but you know whatever, and
it's like on this one, it's like today's the musical day.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
I'm like, yes, we're doing basketball dance.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, it's like it all changes and it's so fun.
It is so fun. They bring the big speakers out
and maybe people watching this don't know, but like the
sound guys show up that day and they have these
huge speakers and they're blasting the music so everybody's in
sync and on the same step and like, ah, man, that.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Is And that's a choreographer's job, working with layback operator
to make sure that they know what part of the
song to start the song at so that the dancing
is ready to go for the shot.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
And he taught it. That's one of things.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
It's one of the things Kenny taught me about, like
when we're on set, make sure you know who the
playback operator is. We're gonna have to work with them.
And I had a book for every section of the
the song. I knew exactly what second mark for what
shot we needed to be doing. I would say, Okay,
go to thirty four seconds for this, and just as
soon as he says, playback just started from thirty four

(29:11):
seconds so the dancers have a good enough lead and
that's not too long, so that we're ready to dance
for that shot. Like I had every single sot, every
single song mapped out ready to tell playback operator when
to start. And Bonnie did the same thing. Bonnie taught
me that. Bonnie taught me, you know, how to be
a choreographer. I was so young, and she taught me
how to like map out the music and write all

(29:32):
the different kinds of eight and put you know, write
out the whole song and then Mike notes next to
every single line about what the choreography and what the
scene is going to be for each part of the song.
So we could have a vision, a map of the
whole thing. It was so much more than just making
up some dance steps and teaching it was. It was
a big process.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that. I didn't know you
worked so much in the playback. I mean it makes
perfect sense, of course.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
And for volume, making sure it was loud enough, Like
if it's not enough on set, you don't have that energy.
You know, if the music is a little too low,
you kind of dance to that music. If it's really
loud and pumping, you dance harder. It just it brings
so much more energy to it. So play that such
an important part of the process and people don't even

(30:18):
think about. There's a lot of dying the scenes to
make the magic happen.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah. I like that kind of bringing that energy when
you guys like dance off screen or if it's like
two people dancing and it's like a little uncomfortable due
a solo dance or something like that, and then you
or can You'll be dancing with them like off.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Screen, pumping them up, yeah and screaming like yeah yeah,
like that's happenings.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Such a different Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah. I saw
Quentin Tarantino doing that in Pulp fiction dancing with the tournament. Yeah, man, yeah, yeah,
that's cool. That's cool. Oh that's great man. Okay, So
let's talk about so you did when you did that, uh,
that meeting with Kenny? How far before rolling cameras was that?

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Oh it was a while. It was probably I would say,
like in March.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
Or April, and then like a month later he's like,
come to Utah and we're gonna do auditions for the dancers.
I want you to be there so you can like,
you know, demonstrate and give some energy. And Bonnie's gonna
be there working with the girls. You could be there
working with the guys. And it was like in Utah
at the dancers auditions where Kenny was like, you should

(31:27):
you should dance in the film, you should assist us.
Why don't you just like come and just live here
for the.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Summer with us. It's only six weeks only we shot
the movie and what twenty days? Yeah, twenty one days?
What was it? It was so fast?

Speaker 1 (31:39):
It was it was it was four weeks, so yeah,
that would be twenty days if it was the five day.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
It was really fast and we only had ten days
to rehearse Monday through Friday. One week Monday through Friday
the next week. Everyone was under eight. A lot of
people were under age. There were a lot of miners.
So we had very specific hours we could do everything.
And but I remember Kenny, you know, at the Utah auditions.
Then I just flew out to work with him on
He's like, you should do the film. You should just

(32:03):
stay here and do the film. It was probably like
a couple months before we started shooting and then and
then it was just like really fast. I feel like
it happened really fast. We had just a fun, a
fun summer, a fun few weeks together in Utah. Yeah,
five weeks together maybe with rehearsals and shoot and then
went home and it didn't air. That was in the

(32:26):
summer of two thousand and four, and it didn't end
air till no summer of two thousand and five. Yeah,
it didn't air until January two thousand and six. There
was a good six months of editing and the whole process.
It wasn't really fast. It's usually faster than that.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Yeah, there was a whole six months. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and then no special promotion, no special commercials, just like
another movie comes out in.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
They had some cool YouTube videos that were promoting these songs.
I remember this like there were some short like shortened
versions of the songs that were on youtub Tube, like
little music videos with footage from the film that hyped
everything up. That was a big part of the promotion.
I remember that. And I was with Kenny in the

(33:11):
spring of two thousand and six in Barcelona doing Cheetah
Girls Too. As soon as High School Musical was blowing
up in the States and on the charts. When the
album started taking over the Billboard charts and the show,
the ratings kept going up every time it was on
Disney Channel, week after week after week, the ratings kept getting.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Higher and higher.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
The viewers just started It was like word of mouth,
like the good old days.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
And I remember being.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
In Barcelona at an internet cafe with the only place
I could go to use the internet back then, and
I would go online and look at what High School
Musical was doing in the United States and in the world,
and it started to take over the world while we
were doing the Cheetah Girls Too.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
In Barcelona, and my mind was just blown.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
One week when I looked at the Billboard charts and
I saw Prince in High School Musical at the top
of the Billboard charts with the best selling albums. I'm like,
what is going on?

Speaker 2 (34:06):
This is what? So cool?

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yeah, oh wow, amazing.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Prince Princeton in High School Musical.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Yeah, the Prince album thirty one twenty one came out
right when High School Musical I think, I think I
Slool Musical was number one, and then that Princes album
came out and that was the one album that push
High School the number two.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Prince in I School Musical. I was like, this is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Prince knows who we are. That's cool. Yeah yeah right right, Yeah,
such a fan.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
I was a huge fan.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, okay, So do you remember the first time everybody
was cast and they said here's here it is.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
No I remember specifically.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
I don't remember when they casted everybody, but the one
I do remember the most is Corvin. Because Corvin was
the only actor who couldn't make it to that first
session that I worked with with Kenny and the actors.
So Kenny asked me to book a studio space for
me to meet with Corman with my camera so I
could record him in the studio. I was going to

(35:06):
meet him, teach him some choreography. See if he could
bounce the basketball, See if he could dribble on the
beat and have control of the ball and dance really well.
And then if he could if he did well, I
was going to give Kenny the green light to give
to Disney to say he's our guy, because he already
knew that Corbyn was extremely likable, a great actor and
a great singer.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
We just didn't know if he could dance.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
And it was very obvious that he could dance when
I started dancing with him in the studio. He just
didn't know if he could play basketball. And Corbyn dressed
the part, he had basketball shorts on. He was dribbling
on the beat. I was like, cool, he can play
basketball and he can dance. I gave Kenny the green
light and Kenny said yes to Disney. I just didn't
know that. Corbyn just happened to have an incredible audition.

(35:51):
He played it off like he could play basketball. I
believe he could play basketball, but it turns out he
had never played basketball in his life, and that was
really tricky during rehearsals trying to and we had a coach,
a coach, you know, with us during rehearsals to teach
us all how to play, and he was fully committed.
But like on that audition day, I remember thinking, man,
this guy is such a he's great. He could dance,

(36:12):
he could play basketball.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
I was fooled.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah, yeah, I think there's a lot of that on
our team. I mean some really great dancers, not such
great basketball players.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah yeah, yeah, but like.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
He he's like properly trained, right, like he does tappen
all that incredible.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Yeah, he trained with Debbie Allen when he was a kid.
He's one of those. He and Vanessa already had really
good dance.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Training, you know. Lucas Lucas said had a little bit.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Of dance training. He wasn't like a dancer, but he
had this charisma. He would jump into anything no matter
what we gave him. He was like so game and
ready for anything, almost like Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey's vibe
just wild and outside the box, you know, and ready
for anything. That's when I found him, Lucas. He was
so much fun to work with.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
He told us about out the choreography process and and
that you guys had him, you put on the music
and go what would you do? Wh would you do this,
and like he could just kind of like was free
dancing and you guys were like huh and picked up
a couple of things that came out of that, Like
that's like organically came out of all this incorporated a
couple of those things into the dance. Does that you
remember that?

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, Lucas went to a high school. He went to
the same high school that Brad Pitt went to actually
back in Missouri. But he was bringing in some ideas
that he remembered from his performing arts background in high
school that he was like, Oh, my high school teacher
used to make us do these jazz squires and it
was you know, we're like, let's.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Throw it in.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
That's you.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
That's what you did do? Did he did?

Speaker 1 (37:39):
He actually bringing jazz squares to he That's iconic.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
This is what I'm saying, Like because of the creative
process Kenny always on the Spot was so spontaneous and
open to any ideas that anyone had. Kenny was and
if it was a great idea, Kenny would sprinkle it
right in and it was it would become part of
the project. On the spot. Kenny was so incredible at
that and that the well jazzquart thing was a Lucas

(38:04):
great bla.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I did not know that. That's so good. I love Lucas.
That's amazing that he did that. That's so good. We
needed that. That would be so sad not to have JAFS.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Square because everybody loved the good jazz.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Everybody loves good. I love it so good. That's cool. Okay,
so numbers so number one, and then of course we
thought number one. We were one and done at that time,
and then then the success and then it was like, actually,
I might be just making a couple more of these
or what did you hear?

Speaker 3 (38:37):
My first thought when you brought up high school musical two,
My first thought was driving around in a car with
Kenny and he gets a phone call from the songwriters
and they're they're writing the script and they're putting the
music to these scenes that call for a musical number,
and one of them was work this out in the kitchen,
and Kenny was like, what do you think?

Speaker 2 (38:54):
What do you think is better? Should be work this
worked this out? Or should we make it go work?
Work work this out?

Speaker 3 (39:02):
I was like the second one, work work that's the
that's better, and he's like, okay, cool, and then he
like called up the songwriter and said, let's do let's
make it like this. You know, there's so many moments
that I just like, remember that we're so creative that
shaped things that like everybody just knows as what it is,
but the whole process, like every little detail was so

(39:26):
thought out. That's a perfect example. Kenny never settled on anything.
If something could be a little bit better, he would.
He would just he would think it through and just
and just make sure it's exactly what it needed to be.
If it wasn't enough, if it wasn't right, he would
he would make it better so it would make sense
and it would have a purpose.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, number three comes along well for his first number
two that was fun summer camp away from the I
think a lot of people with what's your theor on this?
A lot of people come up to me on the street.
They're like, coach of the argument, we have what's the

(40:04):
best movie? And I said, I don't know, man, it's
like a different experience shooting it and then watching it,
So I don't really know. But I have this theory
that people like number two because young kids get to
dream of being away from their parents in supervision like
magical summertime. You know, I never thought about that cool
and like all the just the case most fun.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
The colors were stimulating.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
I think the first movie is the best movie from
a writing standpoint. From a writing standpoint, the flow, something
about that first movie is pretty magical. The second one
and the third one, the dancing gets better and better.
So I'm more proud of the musical numbers in the
second and the third films compared to the first, because
everyone just got so much better and stronger as dancers,

(40:52):
and we were able to use more dancers. We were
able to cast more principal dancers for the second and
third movie. So I tend to be more excited about
those musical numbers. But the first movie I think is
the best.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
I think so too, man, I think so too. I
don't know if it's because of the ride, like the journey,
like this small little movie that just like we got
the experience this rise, like what so that was so
fun and then like so many people had like such
few credits and just being discovered. It was so fun,
but everybody stayed so grounded, you know, like because yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Well everybody had each other to bring each other down.
To Earth.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
I think yeah, when everyone like shot up to the moon,
like when this thing took over the world, everyone had
their own little arc of fame and madness, and we
were all there with each other to like kind of
pull everyone back in case anyone got a little crazy.
We all did that for each other, and at the
end of the day, I think that helped everybody be
like super cool people.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Yeah. Yeah, I think so too, because I thought it's
pretty remarkable. Man, number three comes along and everyone is
so cool, so grounded. Yeah, it was funner for me because,
like everybody was so young. On number one, I'm like,
I can't hang out. It was too young to hang out.
But like number three, I'm like, cool now they feel
like adults at least, like we like hang out on sets. True,
So that was that was fun. But man, that premiere
for number three and all the people showing up to

(42:09):
that movie after we had High School Musical one premiere
of this tiny little theater a Disney on the Disney
lot with nobody. I didn't bring anybody. I showed up
in the rain. My shirt was wet.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
I got people who came. Sixth was there, sixth freeed
from six Fride.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
I think I remember cool. He was so old friend
of Kenny.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, that was so random. I was like, whoa, that's
so cool.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
He just came to that little theater and then suddenly
the big one, the High School Musical three there in
London in Leicester Square, like, oh like the Beatles.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
That was amazing, amazing. Yeah, what a fun ride, man,
what a fun ride. Yeah. Three was three was good time,
and we have more time. We had more time to
shoot that thing. Instead of twenty days, it was thirty.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
It was it was we went from like days to weeks,
like we had it. We had a good amount of
time to really rehearse and to build the numbers and
the scenes and set design everything.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Like the third move that they're all they're all fun
to watch.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
I'm really, really, really proud of the choreography in High
School Musical three. The prom number, the graduation number at
the end of the third film is such a perfect
way to wrap everything up.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
It's a tribute.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
There's a tribute to we're all in this together.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
We wanted to revisit the vibe of what made the
first movie work so well as a finale, and we
did that with the finale of the third. It kind
of wrapped everything up the same structure as We're all
in this together. The high school musical graduation number had
the same kind of structure. We started with, you know,
Zach and Gabriella, A Troy and Gabriella doing their lines,
coming together doing a chorus together, and then Ryan and

(43:39):
then Sharpei and then everyone coming together to do another
chorus together. We pretty much wanted to revisit the magic
that works so well with We're all in this together,
and then raise the bar for the graduation sequence on
the field with more people with better dancing.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
And I think we did that.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
I think we did it really well and really like,
like I said, the numbers summer in high school musical
three are so much fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
There's so much talent.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Yeah, yeah, it is amazing to me that those are
still in twenty twenty five. These are the social media trends.
Every graduation people are making, you know, every prom they're
doing the prom night song.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
So cool.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
It's amazing they did it here at this I did
this event down here in Mexico City and all the
fans came. I hosted this dance party like throwback high
school musical it's prom night. Everybody. High school was a
problem night. I was like, I'll come to that. So
I hosted this thing down here and they were out
of their minds. You're like so passionate. It means so
much to them. It's like they're not just excited about
it. It means so much to them. You know. It always

(44:38):
starts with oh, you don't understand, you don't understand, as
my childhood to be low with it, and then they got
a great story to tell. You know, it's so cool. Okay,
So High School Musical three comes out, and then well,
I know where I saw you next, But what you
tell me where you were you? What happened after that movie?
Because I know you had some offers and you had
some tough decisions to make, which is not fun.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Well, you know, at that point, I had choreographed the
three high school musicals with Kenny and a Cheetah Girls film,
and we were so comfortable working together one film after another,
one project after another, and he wanted me to work
with him on Footloose when he was slated to direct Footloose,
the film I wanted to audition for Michael Jackson for

(45:22):
that This Is It tour and if I got that gig, I.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Wouldn't be able to work with Kenny on the movie.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
Because he was directing the Michael Jackson tour and he
was going to send the dancers in the show on
the road and then he was going to.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
Go right into the film.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
But if I booked the Michael Jackson gig, I'd be
out on the road and.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
I wouldn't be able to work with him on the
next movie.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
So that was a little bit weird. I wanted to
dance for Michael. That was a dream to dance for
Michael Jackson, and I wanted to go to that audition,
and I remember at the time Kenny probably thought it
was like, really weird seeing me there at the audition.
I didn't tell him I was going to go, and
he was probably like, but we're supposed to do this
movie together. It was a little bit weird. But then

(46:02):
at the final cut, when Michael Jackson was there, Michael
pointed me out and Kenny told me the story about
how Michael was like.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Who's that he's rock and roll?

Speaker 3 (46:11):
He's like slash because I was rocking out, you know,
and Kenny and Kenny told me he was like so
proud that Michael pointed me out without Kenny saying anything,
and I got the job because Michael spotted me. And
at the end of the day, once Michael passed away,
Kenny ended up editing the film that became This Is
It because, you know, instead of sending the tour on

(46:33):
the road, he had work to do to make this
movie and he ended up turning down footloose because he
didn't have the time to do it because he was
focused on This Is It. So everything kind of worked
out in a weird way, but I'm so glad, Like
we have that experience that was amazing, and seeing Kenny
working with Michael Jackson versus the high school musical world, like,

(46:55):
it was just even more mind blowing to see the
magic that Kenny brings to the table.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Yeah, he was sixteen years of Michael Jackson something like that.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Yeah, about sixteen sixteen and a half. Ye's, oh yeah,
that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
And the king of pop man, and the King of
pop was pointing out you, that's that's unreal, and.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
He told me the story about it.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
It's just like I get chills still thinking about it
because I love that I didn't get the job because
of Kenny that I got the job because of Michael.
That's that's pretty amazing Kenny. And Kenny was so proud
of me at the end of the day, like like
like a proud dad, Like, yeah, he knew how much
I wanted that gig.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah, yeah, of course. Wow, that's such a big deal.
That's so cool. Well, I remember going to the premiere
of This Is It? Michael Jackson what they call it?
The Yeah, just this is it?

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Yeah, Michael Jackson, this is It was the name of
the film, the name of the tour.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Oh that was the name of the tour as well. Okay,
so yeah, downtown, LA, they have the premiere of Michael
Jackson This is It, and all the Jackson's were there,
and I thought, oh, this is like if you're Michael Jacksonvian,
you've got to see this movie. Like, and you guys
out there, if you haven't seen this movie and you
love Michael this is you have to see this movie.
It's incredible documentary. But what blew by my chuck? He
was like, I'm watching the movie and it sounds like

(48:07):
I'm on the set of high School musical. It was chucky.
Hey do you remember Kenny? Just like Bag and forth.
I'm like, what the this is this wild man?

Speaker 3 (48:14):
Because you get to see Kenny doing what he does
like he Kenny is Kenny and he's the magic Man,
and that's a good it's a good point. Like watching
this is It is a perfect little glimpse into what
it's like being on set with Kenny on.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
It is And you too, I think, because I heard
your name one hundred times in that movie. That was
fun man, that was so fun for me. I was like,
oh wow, bring me back. Yeah, that was great. So
what else, Chucky? What was what's going on now? So
you you did the Michael Jackson thing, how the experience
that was unbelievable. That was a long time ago, and
I know you've done so much since then. By the way,

(48:48):
I didn't know you danced a slop pepin. That was
a big big fan.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
But was that was that was the same job with
Paul Abd. I saw that so many people Celin was
on stage. Wow, Oh my gosh, it's so crazy.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Well, ah, that's so cool. But I know you've done
some amazing things since because I've called you and you've
been on tour with like Rolling Stones, and I do
it like somebody's like, could you tell me, Like, so,
what how did that happen?

Speaker 2 (49:12):
After?

Speaker 1 (49:12):
I mean, for a choreographer and a dancer, do you
just just keep on like an actor, just kind of
keep on keeping on? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
I mean, you know, Kenny called me one day.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
It was back in twenty I want to say, twenty twelve,
twenty eleven, and I'm driving down the freeway and Kenny's
calling me and I answered the phone in my car
and he's like, hey, I just got off the phone
with Mick Jagger. He's looking for a choreographer. And I
had to pull over and stop the car and I
had to be like, wait.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Mc jagger a Rolling Stones. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I was dating someone in London at the time. And
he's like, are you still in London. I'm like, no,
I got back two days ago. He goes, you want
to go back again tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
I'm like, yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
He connected me with Mick Jagger and me blink your eyes.
All these years later, I've been working with him as
a movement coach all these years and as aoreographer on
the road with the Rolling Stones, so all their tours
I've been you know, just I'm not I'm not telling
anyone what to do. But I say that I remind

(50:09):
make about all the things that he can be doing
on stage, because it's easy to forget when you have
things to think about wardrobe, lyrics, songs. He does a
different set list in every city, you know, he has
different jokes every night, so he has a lot to
think about. And it's it's fun to be able to
just remind him, you know, before every show, about about
the movement. And he knows how important it is choreography.

(50:33):
Old school artists understand the importance of choreographers, and they
know that it's just an important aspect of entertainment, just
as important as costumes and as the material itself. So
he embraces that, and he's open minded and he's curious
and he wants to know what he can do better,
even after all these years. So that's that's been keeping

(50:55):
me busy in recent years. Under the radar, I've been.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Floating under the rain, are quietly having the time of
my life.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Unbelieva how many years now, about fifteen that's crazy, Probably
about fifteen years travel in the world. Yeah, I know,
I've connected with you a few times and you're just
like this guy's this season always traveling.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Yeah, you know, moves like Jagger.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
You know, when songs are written about you, you know,
you got to live up to the legacy and the
high standard.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Guy.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
The guy is such a professional. He's just like Michael Jackson,
the utmost professional. His work ethic is so inspiring, so electric,
never stops working all the time. And that's that's the
coolest thing about it, just being a fly on the
wall and seeing how the legends do what they do.
It's really obvious why they become a legend, why they
are who they are.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
It's because of the amount of work and energy they
put into it. It doesn't just happen.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that. So what's
next for you?

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Like?

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Where where? Where can we like give me your socials
so people can find you and see what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
And I'm at Chucky Claypow on Instagram.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
I'm actually look what I'm wearing. See this?

Speaker 1 (52:03):
I always forget to wear my dang, it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
I'm actually selling this, oh really online right now because
in honor of the twentieth anniversary of High School Musical
I've noticed. You know, I'm a collector.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
I love memorabilia. I'm a fan.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Like I said earlier, I'm a fan first, And every
time I go to LA, I go to my house
in LA and I find things. Now that I live
in Vegas, I go to LA and I find things
that are just sitting there collecting dusts that aren't.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Appreciated the way they could be.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
And as a fan, I'm like, somebody out there probably
would appreciate this so much more than me.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yea, I know what I love.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
I'm a collector. I buy things, and I paid big
money for the things that I have, but like we
kind of lived it, you know, our memories are on screen,
like we have different kinds of connections with those. So
every time I've gone home to my home in LA,
I dig stuff up and I'm like, you know what,
there's someone out there that probably appreciate this more, and

(53:00):
I will because it's just sitting there in the dark
in a closet somewhere, And I'm like, for twentieth anniversary,
I'm just gonna put stuff out there for anybody that
wants it.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
I think there are people that would probably like me
with my back.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
To the Future memorabilia, Like I get how exciting that
stuff is. So to celebrate I've been kind of putting
little things out there just for the fans to see.
Whoever wants it, whoever will appreciate and enjoy it. That's
what I'm giving back to the fans.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
I love that. Well, you gave us your time today too.
But that's such a great idea for the twentieth I
think it's so fun.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
You know, there's there's people that would enjoy stuff more
than I know I would. We have our own memories
and we're so connected to it, we lived it.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Yeah, No, it's different. It's different, but you're right, there's
people out there that would mean a whole world too.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
So yeah, I get it. As a fan, I get it.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
I'm gonna join you, Chuckie. I'm gonna find some stuff
you should.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
I think it's fun. And then totally a portion of
it to charity. I think that's really important.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it makes it all the sweeter. So
that's great. I love that. Yeah, that's cool. Uh and
where will you be selling the good? Well?

Speaker 3 (54:00):
I have my ring right now on eBay? Yeah okay, yeah, So,
like I just I just thought it would be fun.
There's a couple other things I love it. I haven't
really put it out there. I just like listed in and.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Whoever people are gonna want it.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
Now I have a Laker ring, and I'm really lucky
because I worked with the Lakers. I have a Lakers ring,
And before I had it, I always as a fan
of the Lakers, my dream was to have a.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Lakers ring like I was. One of my dreams.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
One of my other dreams was to have a platinum plaque,
the platinum record I got.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Cheetah Girls and with high School Musical.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
So, like I understand, I used to always go online
looking for like championship rings, you know, as a fan
of the Lakers. I was just like, I'm just gonna
listen and see if anybody's looking for it and just
stumbles upon it and wants it. I'm not like promoting
it or anything, but I know that there's someone out
there that's going to be like I was, you just
like just stumble upon it and find it.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
So you know, it's my idea.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
It was like if someone's looking for something like that
and just happened to find it, yeah, and then they'll
get it the way that I always dream of for
things that I've like imagined, Imagination creates reality.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, beautiful way to wrap it up. That's beautiful. Chucky. Well,
I'm looking forward to uh you and I hanging out
and make its more videos together.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Anytime you have an idea, I'll whip out.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
That Wildcat's jersey. There's some things I'm not gonna get
rid of.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Yes, yes, okay, let's do it. Let's do it. Oh
my gosh, that was so good. We made a good
People love that. They're like, what is we made it?
We made a video together.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
You need to post the link of that.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
I'll post the link. I'll post the link of it.
But people watch their like, is this some kind of
weird I School musical four? Like it was like a
teer that was like an actual movie. I'm like, no,
we shot it like a two hours.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
You know, that's so funny.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Oh my gosh, I was really We'll keep people guessing.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
You know who I just talked to since I've been
down here in Mexico was Jared Marilla, Well, the Marillo brothers,
I should say, yea. And who else is on that lit.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Brad Tobler, a really tight friend of mine, who's doing
you know. He's an editor for a visual effects editor
for stranger things, like the people that did High School
Musical have gone on to such big things. My sister,
my sister Kimberly was the girl with the basketball and
what time is it? She was choose the second and

(56:18):
third movie she met her husband. My sister met her
husband on High School Musical things Jamison Jameson Mary and
my sister Kimberly, they were both dancers in the third movie.
They ended up getting married. They've been married ever since. Oh,
you know this this film. Even Lucas's sister Autumn met
my husband on on the High School Musical tour. You know,

(56:41):
Eric played based on on the High School Musical tour.
They met on that tour and that was another marriage
that was created by high school musical. All these relationships
just absolutely amazing. There's so many more stories. Yeah, people
don't really know about.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Yeah. And also Row of course, Yeah, and Row. We're
all gonna I was just talking to him. We're all
going to get in the studio together and just d reunion, Yes, a.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
Dance reunion with the dancers, like with Haley Roderick and
Nick Glances Sarah. These people that have gone to become
choreographers in their own rights, you know some of their
early gigs or the high school musical films. Everybody's gone on.
You had Britt Stewart with you. Yeah, you know when
we when we were doing high school musical.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
She was so young. I always wanted her to be
my partner when I was choreographing.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
It because she was so good. And now she's doing
Dancing with the Stars. It's just so amazing to see
what everyone's gone on to do after, you know, just
when we were all kids.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Yeah, and she met her husband on Dancing with the Stars.
So if she didn't do high school musical, you know,
once removed so crazy. That's crazy. Well, thanks your time.
Happy twentieth anniversary to you. Thank you so much for
being a part of giving back to the Wildcats. Love it.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Thanks for having me. It's so good to see you.
Always good to see you. Every time I get to
text from you, it always makes my day. You made
me happy. You make everybody happy.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
It's like you said, like, it's about the energy, it's
about the joy, and you never dropped the ball.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Coach.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
I love you, man, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
Love you more. Bye Bye,